MORE 'BEST-BOOKS-OF-2013' POSTS
Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me By Daniel Beaty Illustrated by Bryan Collier Little, Brown Books for Young Readers $18.00 ISBN: 978-0316209175 Ages 4-8 On shelves December 17th There is a perception out there amongst certain types of parents that the only picture books worthy of their little geniuses are those that reflect their […]
The Real Boy By Anne Ursu Illustrated by Erin McGuire Walden Pond Press (an imprint of Harper Collins) $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-201507-5 Ages 9-12 On shelves now My two-year-old is dealing with the concept of personhood. Lately she’s taken to proclaiming proudly “I’m a person!” when she has successfully mastered something. By the same token, failure […]
Monster On the Hill By Rob Harrell Top Shelf Productions $16.28 ISBN: 978-1-603090759 Ages 8-12 On shelves now See, people? *shakes book in the air* How hard is this, really? I stand beside thousands of children’s librarians who have, for years now, been in a bit of a pickle with the kiddos when it comes […]
The Meanest Birthday Girl By Josh Schneider Clarion Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-547-83814-4 Ages 6-9 On shelves now. Life is easier when you can categorize it. When you can slot it in a distinct category and reduce everything to black and white terms. Gray is problematic and messy, after all. […]
Ben Rides On By Matt Davies A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press (an imprint of Macmillan) $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-59643-794-4 Ages 3-7 On shelves now. The cartoonist as great children’s book author is not a given. Consider the sad case of Berkeley Breathed, for example. He achieved levels of unattainable brilliance when he penned Bloom […]
Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table By Jacqueline Briggs Martin Illustrated by Eric-Shabazz Larkin Readers to Eaters Books ISBN: 978-0-9836615-3-5 $17.95 Ages 4-8 On shelves September 10th It shouldn’t be this hard. You walk to a biography section of a children’s room, any children’s room, and you start searching for biographies of living people […]
Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad By Monica Edinger Illustrated by Robert Byrd Candlewick Press $17.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-5038-4 Ages 9-12 On shelves October 8th It’s no secret that nonfiction in children’s literature is the buzzword of the day. Thanks to the rise of interest in the Core Curriculum State Standards, kids are […]
God Got a Dog By Cynthia Rylant By Marla Frazee Beach Lane Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1-4424-6518-3 Ages 9 and up On shelves October 29th I’ve been thinking a lot lately about whom children’s books are really for. Kids, obviously. And parents that will have to (hopefully, potentially) read those […]
Lockwood & Company: The Screaming Staircase By Jonathan Stroud Hyperion Books for Children $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-4231-6491-3 Ages 10 and up On shelves September 17th I’m sick of historical fiction. I’m sick of contemporary fiction. I’m sick of realism and science fiction. Fantasy I watch with a wary eye. I don’t always feel this way but […]
Locomotive By Brian Floca Atheneum (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) $17.99 ISBN: 978-1-4169-9415-2 Ages 4 and up On shelves September 3rd Many childhood obsessions come down to sheer scale. Whether it’s dinosaurs or trucks (the modern, smog belching dinosaur equivalent) or even princesses (adults are large, no matter how you approach them), size matters. […]